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BENIDORM, Spain (VN) — The 22 starting teams will face a short, 13.5km, but challenging team time trial course to open the 66th Vuelta a España around this bustling beach resort along Spain’s Mediterranean Coast.

The route opens with a testing 3.5km climb right off the bat and later features some technical cornering midway through the course before a final, 5km straightaway to favor the specialists.

“This course is a bit surprising. After we rode it, we realized it has a bit of everything thrown at you,” Garmin-Cervélo sport director Bingen Fernández told VeloNews. “The climb is short but pretty steep. Then there are some very technical corners through the old part of town and then it’s flat along the beach, where it could be windy.”

Fernández said he doesn’t expect big time differences between the teams, which will roll out in four-minute intervals in Benidorm.

The route climbs into the hills just north of the beaches, where the route double backs and descends toward the old fishing village of Benidorm. Two tricky corners on cobblestoned streets could provoke some nerves among some of the less experienced riders.

The course kicks onto the flats for the final 5km, pushing east along the open seafront before doubling back to the finish line right in the heart of the tourist mecca of Benidorm.

“A team time trial is usually flat and favors the rolleurs, but this has a little bit of everything,” he continued. “The time differences shouldn’t be very big, because it’s quite a short distance. The differences will be taken in the first climb. And in the end, well, it will be the powerful riders who can carry home a team.”

Garmin-Cervélo will be among the favorites for victory, but it won’t have the same horse power it had when it won the Tour de France team time trial last month.

Others looking for strong rides will be HTC-Highroad, doubly motivated to defend its TTT victory from a year ago in what will be its final grand tour as a team.

Liquigas-Cannondale always puts down a good TTT while Team Sky, with pursuit Olympian Bradley Wiggins in the mix, will also be among the favorites.

Andrew Hood

Andrew Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood has covered every Tour de France since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002.